Rebirth: I Am Not the Movie Queen This Time-Chapter 69 Concealment

Bai Zhixi lowered her head and put a piece of braised pork on her daughter’s plate, "Eat more, once you go off to university, it will be hard to eat this again."

Chuchu casually responded, "Then I’ll just bring you with me, and I can eat it whenever I want."

Bai Zhixi was stunned for a moment, watching her daughter eat with joy, but unable to stop her eyes from reddening.

She seemed to remember something, blinked rapidly, and blinked away the moisture in her eyes.

Actually, Chuchu’s original plan was to take Bai Zhixi with her when she went to university, for both of them to live in Beijing, but now that Bai’s Pickles business is doing really well, Bai Zhixi probably can’t leave it.

Chuchu quickly finished her meal. After wiping her mouth, she sat at the table, waiting for Bai Zhixi to eat and chatting with her, asking how the pickle business was going.

As they were talking, Chuchu suddenly widened her eyes, exclaiming, "Mom, did you put powder on your face?"

Bai Zhixi was usually very plain. She wouldn’t even apply face cream after washing her face. How could she suddenly be wearing powder?

Bai Zhixi, mid-bite with a piece of vegetable, stopped in her tracks, her heart seeming to skip a beat, and the food on her chopsticks fell onto the table.

Chuchu hadn’t expected her comment to provoke such a big reaction from Bai Zhixi and asked doubtfully, "What’s wrong?"

Bai Zhixi quickly recovered, squeezing out a smile, "I meet a lot of people every day now, putting on some powder makes me look better. It puts others in a good mood, and when they’re in a good mood, they might not bargain with me so hard."

Towards the end, she talked more and more fluently, as if that’s truly the reason.

After thinking for a moment, Chuchu said, "I read in a book that it’s disrespectful to others when a woman doesn’t wear makeup. I didn’t expect our Wutong County to be so progressive."

Even if Bai Zhixi really did put on makeup to look good, Chuchu thought it was fine. Bai Zhixi knew to pursue beauty, which showed she was in high spirits.

She looked closely at the powder on Bai Zhixi’s face and earnestly commented, "Mom, the powder you used is too thick, and you’ve put on too much red blush. You should only apply a little bit on the cheeks."

Bai Zhixi’s eyes were somewhat frantic, trying to avoid her daughter’s gaze, "How would a student like you know how to apply makeup? Others have said it looks good."

Chuchu grinned. How did she know how to do makeup?

In her past life, after failing the college entrance exam, she let herself go for two months, mixing with different people, ending up looking like a ghost every day with all the makeup.

Afraid that Bai Zhixi would continue asking, Chuchu laughed it off, saying, "I may not know how to apply it, but I can tell what’s good."

But Bai Zhixi was afraid that Chuchu would ask further, and hence slammed her chopsticks down on the table with a stern face.

"Your task now is to study, not to judge whether someone’s makeup looks good or not!"

Her tone was a bit stern. Chuchu was surprised by Bai Zhixi’s sudden outburst. Seeing that Bai Zhixi was also not in a good mood, she quickly bowed and said, "I understand, I understand, Mom, don’t be mad. I’ll definitely get into a good university."

Sigh, Bai Zhixi was easily irritable lately. Chuchu thought that Bai Zhixi was suffering from pre-exam anxiety, worried that she wouldn’t perform well. Well, the college entrance exam was only a few days away. Once it was over, Bai Zhixi would probably be better.

Each harboring their own thoughts, neither mother nor daughter looked at the other; Bai Zhixi bowed her head to eat, concealing her emotions, while Chuchu turned her head to look outside.

"It’s getting late; you should go study."

"It’s getting late; I’ll go back to my room to read."

Both mother and daughter uttered the same words simultaneously.

Chuchu couldn’t help but laugh, saying, "Then I’ll go study."

Only after hearing the sound of the room door closing behind her did Bai Zhixi turn her head to look at the door of her daughter’s room, her face filled with reluctance and sadness, with tears brimming in her eyes.

Last month she felt unwell, took time off to visit the hospital for a check-up, and the result turned out to be one she couldn’t accept.

Her first thought was disbelief, convinced that the hospital must have made a mistake. She immediately took a bus to Wanzhou and after examination in Wanzhou Hospital, the result was still the same.

Late-stage cancer.

The doctor said it had already started to metastasize. She didn’t understand what metastasis meant until she asked, then she realized what it signified.

Which means it’s incurable. She was sentenced to death.

Now that she and her daughter’s life had just started to improve, how could she accept this outcome?

Moreover, she hadn’t felt any discomfort before, so how could it suddenly be late-stage cancer? Saying it had metastasized, it just did?

At that moment, Bai Zhixi passed out.

When she finally accepted this terrible news, her first thought was to absolutely keep it from Chuchu. But then, not knowing who to tell, she was left to bear it alone.

Initially, her thoughts were in disarray, going about in a daze, always making mistakes in business, accounts in complete disarray, with instructions to the workers incoherent.

After two days, she picked three people from her workers: one in charge of making pickles, one in charge of deliveries, one in charge of bookkeeping. Only then did the business return to normal.

Then she secluded herself in the courtyard to adjust her mood, and every time Chuchu looked for her, she made excuses about being busy to avoid her.

Once her mood finally stabilized, she went to the hospital again, clinging to a sliver of hope, only to learn that her chances of successful treatment were extremely slim, and each treatment would cost a fortune.

She left the hospital without a second thought. As someone destined to die, she couldn’t spend all their money; she had to plan for Chuchu’s future.

Chuchu was at a crucial moment in life; she absolutely could not let her daughter know about her condition. She was aware of how much her daughter relied on her. Just the year before last, when she went to Wanzhou to trade wild goods, Chuchu felt immense guilt and sulked with herself over something as minor as her leg going numb.

If Chuchu found out about her condition, she didn’t dare imagine how she would react.

Lately, she felt her body truly start to fail. Fearing Chuchu would discover something, she tried to stay away in the courtyard as much as possible.

Today, if she didn’t go back, Chuchu might come looking for her at the courtyard, and if that happened, she feared what Chuchu might find out. She couldn’t take that risk.

So she bought cheap makeup powder and applied a thick layer to cover her pale and emaciated face.

#

The next day, when Wan Chu’er woke up, she saw Bai Zhixi was still sleeping, so she didn’t disturb her. After getting ready, she went out for a run.

By the time she returned, breakfast was covered on the table, along with a note from Bai Zhixi.

"Mom has something urgent in Wanzhou and will be back in three days. Don’t worry."

Wan Chu’er stroked her chin, not understanding what urgent matter would make Bai Zhixi leave without even seeing her once.

Could it be that the pickle store owner had some new request?

Wan Chu’er thought about going to check the courtyard, then remembered how Bai Zhixi scolded her the last time she went there to help.

That time Bai Zhixi was very angry, annoyed that she was wandering around with the high school examination approaching, not focused on studying properly.

This was the first time since her rebirth that Bai Zhixi had lost her temper.

Thinking about how Bai Zhixi got angry again last night, she figured it wasn’t worth it. If Bai Zhixi found out, she would surely get angry again.

Better to wait until after the high school examination. Perhaps Bai Zhixi would return to normal once she saw her test scores.